HOW DOES MUSIC INFLUENCES OUR IDENTITY

Music is a fundamental channel of communication: it provides a means
by which people can share emotions, intentions and meanings even
though their spoken languages may be mutually incomprehensible. It can
also provide a vital lifeline to human interaction for those whose
special needs make other means of communication difficult. Music can
exert powerful physical effects, can produce deep and profound
emotions within us, and can be used to generate infinitely subtle
variations of expressiveness by skilled composers and performers.
since we are addressing the question that how does ones identity gets
influenced by the genre of music they listen to, the research tell
that ones identity is greatly influenced,in fact determined by the
type of music they are into. the best example to this can be the RAP
listeners who eventually start dressing themselves as the RAP singers
they start talking in the dialect in which they talk and so on.if this
is not example then we can take example of sufism , the listener of
this genre are usually lonely and sad in persons.now let us discuss
the reasons which eventually over time lead to this transformation in
identity and personality caused by the music genres.As we know music
plays a greater part in the everyday lives of more people than at any
time in the past hence music has now became a significant part in
everyone's life and everyone has preferences in it. This is partly the
result of the extremely rapid technological developments that have
occurred in the last two decades or so, allied to the increasing
commercialization and economic power of the music industry. not only
in the developed countries but also in the third world the widespread
availability and relative inexpensiveness of the Walkman, the
Internet, the MIDI interface, the video recorder and more means that a
vast diversity of musical styles and genres is available to us as
listeners. The ways in which people experience music—as ‘consumers’,
fans, listeners, composers, arrangers, performers or critics—are far
more diverse than at any time in the past, as are the range of
contexts in which this takes place. hence the most significant result
of this is that music can be used increasingly as a means by which we
formulate and express our individual identities.the reason s for this
transformation and this formulation can be so many. mainly we do this
to regulate our own everyday moods and behaviours an example to this
can be ; if we are sad due to  some reason w would prefer listening to
sad  songs so the our personality and identity is transformed into
sadness. however some people use this other way round ; for example if
they are dad they might  listen to fast songs in order to get over
their sadness. hence in these ways the get their identity or
personality influenced by the type of music.
Secondly we do it  also to present ourselves to others in the way we
prefer. for example if one is a a big fan of nusrat fateh ali khan and
he wants to show the world that he or she is a big fan of qawallis and
sufism and all that so they will ultimately transform their
personality and identity  very similar to the type of musician or
singer they like. Our musical tastes and preferences can form an
important statement of our values and attitudes, and composers and
performers use their music to express their own distinctive views of
the world.
People do actually define themselves through music and relate to other
people through it.We have always suspected a link between music taste
and personality.People may define their musical identity by wearing
particular clothes, going to certain pubs, and using certain types of
slang. So it’s not so surprising that personality should be related to
musical preference. We really got the sense that people were selecting
musical styles to like that match their own personality or some use to
select the personality style which matched their music or genre
preference. There haven't been many studies conducted into the
intersection of musical preference and personality, as most research
in the field has focused on how music (particularly heavy metal and
rap) may influence behaviour . However, there has been some
fascinating research conducted in recent years linking musical tastes
to certain personality traits, which I've summarized below. These are,
of course, only tendencies. Although the average fan of a particular
genre may be more or less likely to have certain traits, there will
always be plenty of individuals who don't fit the prototype.
Blues fans  eventually have high self-esteem, are creative, outgoing,
gentle and at ease
Jazz fans  eventually have high self-esteem, are creative, outgoing and at ease
Classical music fans eventually  have high self-esteem, are creative,
introvert and at ease
Rap fans eventually  have high self-esteem and are outgoing
Opera fans eventually  have high self-esteem, are creative and gentle
Country and western fans are eventually  hardworking and outgoing
Reggae fans  eventually have high self-esteem, are creative, not
hardworking, outgoing, gentle and at ease
Dance fans are eventually creative and outgoing but not gentle
Indie fans eventually  have low self-esteem, are creative, not hard
working, and not gentle
Bollywood fans are eventually  creative and outgoing
Rock/heavy metal fans eventually  have low self-esteem, are creative,
not hard-working, not outgoing, gentle, and at ease
Chart pop fans  eventually have high self-esteem, are hardworking,
outgoing and gentle, but are not creative and not at ease
Soul fans eventually  have high self-esteem, are creative, outgoing,
gentle, and at ease

it is widely noted that classical and heavy metal music both attracts
listeners with similar personalities but dissimilar ages. Younger
members of the personality group apparently go for heavy metal, while
their older counterparts prefer classical. However, both have the same
basic motivation: to hear something dramatic and theatrical, a shared
“love of the grandiose.'' The general public has held a stereotype of
heavy metal fans being suicidally depressed and being a danger to
themselves and society in general,” “but they are quite delicate
things. Aside from their age, they’re basically the same kind of
person [as a classical music fan]. Lots of heavy metal fans will tell
you that they also like Wagner, because it’s big, loud and brash.
these theories and mindsets about different listeners are a proof that
everyone's personality eventually in near or late future is effected
by the type of genre he or she listens to.


Music can serve as a badge expressing one’s membership to a certain
group or social category. It’s not unexpected to discover that we
actually stereotype people based on what type of music they listen to.
In a nightclub, music has an important role with mating, or “hooking
up.” Two individuals on a dancefloor connecting with a certain strong,
might posses underlying and implicit indications of compatibility.
Many genres and sub-genres were examined, the following were chosen as
they were what the majority of individuals knew; alternative, blues,
classical, country, electronic, folk, heavy metal, jazz, pop, rap,
religious, rock, soul and sound.
And now for the data, and a few interesting points for each graph.



hence concludingly, ones identity gets influenced by the genre they
listen to in numerous ways suggested above and we can undoubtedly
state that the identiy of people switches with the genre because they
want themselves to be like that or the are too much influenced by
stars, composer or by the music itself. kids are usually get
influenced by rappers ,or there are some extreme examples like nusrat
faith ali khan who used to sing in front of foreigners who never
understood his language but still they use to dance outburstly on his
spectacular music and voice. therefore music is such a strong and
influential object which develops bond with the emotional,mental and
phycological traits , behavior and characteristics of human beings and
mould their lifestyle into its own magic